


Midmorning

by archeradicators



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Body Modification, M/M, Quadrant Vacillation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 17:42:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21001622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archeradicators/pseuds/archeradicators
Summary: Karkat reflects on his relationship with his kismesis after they've spent some time together.





	Midmorning

You're lying next to him as the sun starts coming up, sleepy haze from the previous day's bullshit descending on you like a pack of wild seagulls on a shitty beach boardwalk. Part of you is glad for it; the part of you that's happy to have something so cold next to you, so you don't have to sweat through the piles of blankets you usually do. With him though, your tired mind muses, well, he'd probably take care of that for you all by himself anyway.

The other part of you wishes you weren't so clingy to literally everyone you ended up with. You resent that the clingy-ness of your post-sloppy-whatever seems to be mutual in this case, too. He's got one of his stupidly solid, damp arms around your middle, and you hate how secure it makes you feel. You know he could keep you there and there would be nothing you could do about it. 

You also know he would never do that to you. That's why you're here in the first place, after all. 

You turn slightly and look back at his face as much as you can out of some sleep deprived impulse, getting a rare chance to see him without those stupid broken glasses covering up most of it. He's almost expressionless all the time anyway, so it's not like it's a treat, but the biotech work he's done to himself is really what stands out to you. 

The wires on his cheeks pulse in a slow, steady white glow that manages to be soft enough that it doesn't irritate you. You wonder if he programmed that feature himself, remembering how they always seem to be white when you see him otherwise. He probably did it for his own benefit, so he wouldn't be kept awake by the light, and you really don't know how he stands it otherwise, but you also don't care so much. 

Flopping over onto your other side so you can see him more clearly, you're suddenly struck by the impulse to touch the wires just to see what they feel like. He kept your hands as far away from his face as he could earlier and you're spiteful. You brush the pad of your thumb slowly across his face almost methodically tracing over them, and you try not to press down too hard so that he stays asleep. They're raised, almost rough and slightly warmer than you expected them to be. 

You space out and let yourself keep tracing them until his hand comes over yours and folds your fingers into a fist. He holds it against his face for a moment and then moves your hands together to rest between your faces. 

You always hate how he tries to put that distance between the two of you. You feel like he should want to let you be closer to him, but you vaguely wonder if he's ever really close to anyone who isn't Nepeta. 

“You know,” he mumbles, the light from those wires turning a brighter, solid white, “If you wanted to touch my face you could have asked me earlier.”

“You wouldn't have let me earlier,” you mumble back, tiredness taking the acid out of your words almost like a damp rag would muffle sound. “Asshole.”

He snorts, smiles a little even, like he thinks its ridiculous to even entertain the idea. 

“Karkat, they're delicate. I do, however, appreciate the... odd amount of care you were putting into that gesture just now.” 

“What,” you say, “the hell are you talking about, Zahhak.”

“Oh, you know,” he opens his eyes to look at you, though not too much, and keeps that little smug smile on his face. “What with your gently caressing my face, it might let me entertain the idea that you're vacillating with me.”

“Hey, fuck you!” You feel the blush rising on your cheeks but can't really be assed to make an attempt to control it. 

He chuckles under his breath. “I'm just telling you how it comes off, you soft little fool.”

While your hazy mind is trying to come up with something, anything, to retort that insult with, you feel him move your clasped hands again. You look back at him, prepared to tell him to fuck right off or something equally unoriginal, but before you can he closes the gap between the two of you with a kiss.

It's... it's softer than he usually is. You're speechless.

He pulls away from you and sighs, eyes closed again, and the gentle pulse of his wires on his face finding their familiar rhythm. 

“You aren't the only one feeling that nonsense tonight, Karkat.”

**Author's Note:**

> I was trying to get more down to contextualize this, but I'm in a bit of a writers block right now and this was just meant to be a warm up anyway. I might add more to this later.


End file.
